Entrepreneurial Advice on the Interent

I recently added The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (TPE) to my Great Reading blog list on the side panel here at Inventor Mentor. Mike Michalowicz offers a wealth of information on entrepreneurship, and I highly recommend subscribing to and reading his blog regularly, especially if you are just getting started.

Mike writes practical as well as cutting edge articles related to staying alive and well in business. This week, for instance, he has a fabulous post about how to get free resources and services. Mike invited a number of entrepreneurs--including moi-- to offer suggestions about free resources and services. Check it out.

These entrepreneurs promote bartering, giving to get, and saying "thank you" to name a few. My blurb on TPE advises entrepreneurs to carry product with you where ever you go and give it away to promote good will and attract customers.

And let me add: Seek the free advice offered by others all over the Internet, especially on blogs.

Speak Up 2: Talking to Clubs and Organizations

Last week, I talked about the value of speaking to clubs and organizations. Speaking up helps an inventor/entrepreneur to network and promote a product. It is also can be kind of scary. You only get a few minutes in which to make an impression and convey your message, so it's important to do it right.

I joined Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills, so I do my best when I went out and spoke to organizations. Toastmasters is an international organization that has groups that meet in just about every community--even my small rural community.

At Toastmasters, there is no instructor; instead,you learn from other participants as each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. You learn skills by filling a meeting role, such as giving a prepared or impromptu speech or serving as timer, evaluator, or grammarian.

Here is what I learned at Toastmasters:

• Humor is important;
• People want to be entertained while being informed;
• Know your audience so you can deliver the right message;
• To be prepared you have practice, practice, practice.

I highly recommend joining Toastmasters to become a better public speaker. And then go out and speak up!

ADVERTISE

What do you think of when you see the word ADVERTISE?

Do you see a print ad in a newspaper, magazine or phone book? Or maybe you think of those magnetic business signs that folks put on cars. Business cards are another way to get your company name out there. Advertising is an essential business practice.

In the 21st century, you also have to advertise on the web. Early on, one of my mentors told me that I need a cyber-presence and he urged me to get my business website up and running as quickly as possible. Writing a blog like "Inventor Mentor" is another way to have a cyber-presence.

Recently I found my business advertised repeatedly by others on the World Wide Web.

In July I was the featured inventor in the "Flash of Genius" column in the July 2010 issue of the USPTO online newsletter InventorsEye. I wrote about this honor in a previous blog, "Protect Your Ideas."

Then Dane Carlson ran a fabulous vidcast on his blog in a segment called "That's My Business #102." In this 3-minute production, Rich Whittle interviews me about starting my business while pictures of my products appear on the screen as I answered his questions.

And this week, an article about KleenSlate Concepts was featured on the Marquette segment of Examiner.com. This site writes web-based articles related to specific geographic locations, in this case the upper peninsula of Michigan, where my erasers on now being manufactured. The article is called "Back-to-school COOL with KleenSlate (R) Concepts." In this article, my business name and the value of my product is promoted in a region I might not otherwise have been visible.

Advertisement like this is priceless and free. Each piece is unique in tone, emphasis and format thus providing a fresh look at KleenSlate. Best of all, the KleenSlate name is locked into these sites virtually forever and has the potential to come up in web searches for a long time to come.

Book Signing

Last Saturday, we held a book signing to promote The Right Sisters in our local community. We invited family, friends, and business associates and sent a press release to the local newspaper about the event which was held in a coffee house on the main street.

We were delighted with the steady stream of guests who came to wish us well, buy books, and get them signed. Most gratifying, however, was the number of inventors who showed up.

The target audience for The Right Sisters is people who are interested in the inventor's journey, so when these folks arrived in response to the announcement in the newspaper, we knew that we were reaching our intended audience. Some of these inventors had a fledgling idea while others were farther along in the journey. One women told about her mother who had invented a product and applied for the patent but had died unexpectedly. Now the daughter wanted to continue the journey for her mother.

The Right Sisters has the answers these inventors are seeking. They were eager to begin reading the 10 stories told by modern women inventors. For us, talking to other inventors was energizing, so meeting these guests was a reciprocal experience.

Product Promotion: 2 Thoughts

Promoting one's product is a never-ending job for those of us who decide to manufacture and market our own inventions. I'm constantly thinking about promotion, and I thought I'd share two thoughts I had this week.

1. Unexpected Promotional Opportunities. I'm always on the look out for ways to promote my products. Last week, I got a notice from Google Alerts about a blogger who was writing about whiteboards: Jason Berke's wrote a blog entitled "A Brief History of the Dry Erase Marker." I was delighted that Jason chose this topic. I was also pleased to have this unexpected opportunity to promote my Whiteboard Paddles. I added a comment to Jason's post with a link to KleenSlate Concepts. I don't know how many readers Jason has, but a few adds up to many, and I've just let a few more people know about the paddles and KleenSlate. Plus by mentioning him here, I create a link back to my blog that some of his readers might follow. Like I said, "I take every opportunity to promote my product."
2. Give Something When Promoting Your Product. Everyone likes to get a gift, so when I'm promoting, I pass out markers, erasers, discount opportunities and sometimes just a suggestion. For example, when I commented on Jason's post, I let him and his readers know that soap and water is the best way to clean dry erase boards. This little piece of advice was my gift to him. You see in working with customers, they've told me that clean up is always an concern, so I've made a point to respond to that concern. Remember last week, when I wrote about listening your customers at trade shows? You can turn their needs and concerns into a practical piece of advice or a gift.

I'd love to hear how you grasp every opportunity to promote your inventions. Please leave me a comment and if a gift if you like.

5 Trade Show Tips

KleenSlate just spent 17 days on the road at four separate trade shows. Early on in my inventor journey, I learned the value of getting to industry specific trade shows. In my case, that meant educational and office supply shows. The most recent round of shows were educational, which brings me to the focus of this post: 5 trade show tips.

You see, it's simply not enough to get to the shows which in some cases cost a bundle to attend. You need to make them profitable. Here are my suggestions for making the most of your time at a trade show.

1. Do your homework. Find out who will be attending the show and what they need. In these tough economic times, it also pays to find out who has money to spend. For example, most schools are taking drastic measures to cut costs, so when I decided to go to these educational trade shows, I needed to find out who had money to spend. With a little investigation, I discovered that there was money in Title I programs, so I made these people my target audience at each trade show.
2. Where comfortable shoes. You are going to be on your feet for hours at a trade show, so invest in the most comfortable shoes possible. It will be money well spent. You need to happy feet to stay upbeat while promoting your product.
3. Give a KISS presentation and then listen: Keep your presentation simple, a maximum of 3 talking points aimed at the target customer(s) you identified by doing your homework. Give your presentation, quickly and smoothly. Then stop and listen to the customer. Ask them questions. Find out what problems they are trying to solve. I asked questions and learned that teachers hated the smell of dry erase markers; they frequently threw them away because the tips collapsed into the marker, and they wanted an eraser on the end. So I created such a marker for my customer.
4. Close the deal. Don't let a potential sale get away. Develop a practiced phrase or two that gets customers to place an order on the spot. If necessary, offer a deal they can't pass up. Keep the ordering process easy.
5. Follow-up. Have someone in place when you get home who can follow-up on every contact you made at the trade show and do it promptly.

Trade shows are one of the best options to show customers our products, but we have to make them work to our advantage.